DO you leave your A-TV running all the time ?

[mohanman]

I have two appletvs (one in the living room, one in the bedroom) and both are connected to one of those power conserving power strips that only powers on if the tv is on. I know this may sound crazy, but my electricity bill has decreased maybe 10-20 bucks/month. Whether its because of the appletv, or other things attached to my power-strip I have no idea.

I just don't like thing whirring around all day, emitting heat. Just turn the damn thing off, and turn it on when the tv is on.. it only takes a few seconds to boot up.

Mo

 

[minik]

I have two appletvs (one in the living room, one in the bedroom) and both are connected to one of those power conserving power strips that only powers on if the tv is on. I know this may sound crazy, but my electricity bill has decreased maybe 10-20 bucks/month. Whether its because of the appletv, or other things attached to my power-strip I have no idea.

I just don't like thing whirring around all day, emitting heat. Just turn the damn thing off, and turn it on when the tv is on.. it only takes a few seconds to boot up.

Mo

I'm looking for those 'Green' surge protector for my ordered Sony TV, PS3, Wii, and Apple TV. Which brand do you have? APC, Belkin?

 

[pprior]

Is there any possibility of corruption or damage to the ATV if you just cut the power to it via a power strip? I.e. do you have to remember to "standby" everytime?

I am rethinking leaving mine on all the time given how much electricity it uses.

 

[kikykuang]

I always turn my TV off and it can save electroform

 

[minik]

Nowadays, I unplug my Apple TV when it's not being used.

 

[stonewall123]

Its pretty ridiculous that they don't have better energy management than they do. I'd like an appleTV but won;t buy one until a) they have much bigger hard drives and 2) they have an energy star energy mode when not in use.

 

[minik]

Its pretty ridiculous that they don't have better energy management than they do. I'd like an appleTV but won;t buy one until a) they have much bigger hard drives and 2) they have an energy star energy mode when not in use.

I agree. Could it be Apple treat the Apple TV as an instant-on device? 'Hobbyist' does not want to sit through the boot up process.

 

[MacBoobsPro]

The ATV could REALLY do with physical power off switch as well as being more energy efficient. If I want to cut power to mine I have to man handle my 42" TV (luckily its on a swivel base) squeeze through the tinniest of gaps without knocking my TV over and try and bend down to flick the wall socket off. I dont like just pulling the cable out of the ATV because trying to plug it back in you get a nice white spark. Well I do at least.

On a side note I found out how much power my PowerMac G5 uses and it has scared the hell out of me. Because the ATV drives are so damn small I have to have G5 running along with it streaming my content and obviously the TV on too. The ATV is a real power hungry set up.

To be fair the latest MacPros use about half the power of my G5 and Intel/Apples hard work at getting power consumption is quite impressive, especially when you consider the increases in performance in the products.

Anyhoo, I digress, my ATV stays on standy because it has no off switch and the wall socket is a nightmare to get to.

 

[mohanman]

The ATV could REALLY do with physical power off switch as well as being more energy efficient. If I want to cut power to mine I have to man handle my 42" TV (luckily its on a swivel base) squeeze through the tinniest of gaps without knocking my TV over and try and bend down to flick the wall socket off. I dont like just pulling the cable out of the ATV because trying to plug it back in you get a nice white spark. Well I do at least.

On a side note I found out how much power my PowerMac G5 uses and it has scared the hell out of me. Because the ATV drives are so damn small I have to have G5 running along with it streaming my content and obviously the TV on too. The ATV is a real power hungry set up.

To be fair the latest MacPros use about half the power of my G5 and Intel/Apples hard work at getting power consumption is quite impressive, especially when you consider the increases in performance in the products.

Anyhoo, I digress, my ATV stays on standy because it has no off switch and the wall socket is a nightmare to get to.

Just get one of those switches we mentioned above. Plug the TV into the outlet that "regulates" the other outlets. That way if the tv is on, the other switches are on, if not then off. Its simple, and the appletv literally takes only a few seconds to boot up..

When you turn off the tv, it cuts power to the appletv .. simple as that. And all your settings are saved, never had a problem where I lost data or settings.

Its easy as pie (as my friends in the south say)

 

[eleven59]

At least you have an option to turn it off for the Wii.

and at least the wii can download and install its own updates if it is in sleep mode... the ATV seems to just want to stay on for no reason other than to be ready to play

 

[xraydoc]

I have 3. Not very "green," but I leave them on virtually all the time. I do put them in to standby when I know I wont be using them any further for the day, but they'll automatically come out of stand by when I add/change something on my iTunes server.

 

[Marvin1379]

I also unplug it when not in use. Startup takes but 2 mins and then it syncs quickly. I plug it in several mins before I want to use it and it is ready to go when I am. The power management is terrible. No sense in letting the thing cook if it doesn't have to.

 

[Keebler]

i unplug it when not in use. i'm not a 'power user' per say, but i think leaving it on for any length of unused time is wasteful.

i try to turn off as much as I can. i'm not a green thumb per say, but it just doesn't make sense to keep it on.

just another expense to the long list and every penny saved....

 

[trule]

I wonder if the hardware supports a proper sleep mode like the iMacs? Perhaps there is a command you could run over ssh that would put it to sleep.

I see this on the web http://tumblr.caseyliss.com/post/38262076

#!/bin/bash
echo Going to sleep in 30 seconds...
sleep 30
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to sleep'

Perhaps someone with ssh setup on their ATV can try it.

EDIT: or sudo osascript -e 'tell app "Finder" to sleep'

 

[nüb]

so if its on standby mode, its still able to get content from iTunes?

Yes. I believe it still receives updates when in Stand-By. It definitely syncs to your Mac in Stand-By.

 

[nüb]

The ATV could REALLY do with physical power off switch as well as being more energy efficient. If I want to cut power to mine I have to man handle my 42" TV (luckily its on a swivel base) squeeze through the tinniest of gaps without knocking my TV over and try and bend down to flick the wall socket off. I dont like just pulling the cable out of the ATV because trying to plug it back in you get a nice white spark. Well I do at least.

On a side note I found out how much power my PowerMac G5 uses and it has scared the hell out of me. Because the ATV drives are so damn small I have to have G5 running along with it streaming my content and obviously the TV on too. The ATV is a real power hungry set up.

To be fair the latest MacPros use about half the power of my G5 and Intel/Apples hard work at getting power consumption is quite impressive, especially when you consider the increases in performance in the products.

Anyhoo, I digress, my ATV stays on standy because it has no off switch and the wall socket is a nightmare to get to.

I have a Denon receiver and am going to return to plugging the TV into the receiver's power distribution (i have two ungrounded plugs on the back of my receiver). This way, when i turn off my receiver, which ALL my signals run to, the ATV turns off too!